She Would Be a Governess Author:She General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1861 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: During my father's illness, and since his death, I have continued to live this same quiet sort of life. I got one letter from my old aunt Genevieve, written on her death-bed ; in it she conjured me to hold fast by the faith of my ancestors, which she had endeavoured to teach at the convent she presided over. But whatever glimpses of her faith I obtained from their teaching had since faded from my mind under other influences. Not so the impression I received, even as a child, of the holiness of these excellent women : that I shall never forget. CHAPTER II. " If the people die for want of knowledge, they who are set over them shall also die for want of charity." -- Jeremy Taylor. Being sixteen yesterday, and no longer a child, I ventured this morning to ask mamma some questions which I have often desired to put to her, but never had the courage to do so, for mamma, though a dear, kind parent, is not very easy of access: not that she is stern, but grave and silent. I pondered over my questions all the morning, and became so absorbed in them that I conjugated them with my French verbs, and added them up with my sums. They got mixed up also in a confused way with the history I was reading, making a stalwart Fitzgerald Prefect of the Praetorian guard, and Crom a boo, the war-cry oi Alexander Severus. Mamma sat at her work, mute, pale, and sorrowful, and I hesitated twice when about to speak, for I feared thatthe mere mention of old times might distress her; yet I had an intense desire for an explanation of several puzzling circumstances in our lives. At length my pent-up words burst forth : " Mamma, I...« less